Seamus and Smokey

This past weekend our friend Seamus came down from Osaka to see how wonderful Kumamoto is! It was a long weekend, and Erin and I packed it full of fun things to do! We ate some delicious food, went to one of the most famous onsen villages in Japan, saw Aso-san (the volcano) in the snow and even made a Costco trip to get ready for Thanksgiving!














































One of the main highlights is that my friends Matt and Shannon got the CUTEST puppy ever! They named it Smokey and I could honestly just play with it forever! (If you've seen my facebook pictures, I could basically fill up an album with just photos of the puppy!) Here are some highlights:





























In other news, this week has mostly been spent trying to get things squared away for my winter trip to Thailand! I'm going from December 19 - January 7 and I can't wait for the BEACHES!!! Tomorrow, I'm going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with some friends. Being so far away on a family-oriented holiday is difficult (they don't eat turkey here either :( ...) but being around good friends will make it a little easier!

Well I think I should be caught up for the most part. There have been fun little things here and there, but the big stuff has all been posted. Hope all is well back home and Happy Thanksgiving!

The girl that has been in Aso for 5 years, Xina, invited me out the other day to take part in some food steaming up in Oguni (a nearby town.) One of her Japanese friends had a sister in town from Kyoto who is a writer for a major Japanese newspaper. About five women came and brought all these raw foods for our lunch. We made different types of dumplings and steamed them by directing a metal pipe with the natural steam towards our food. One of the women had twin sons that I officially want to adopt, so Xina and I had a blast playing with the kids. While the women fussed about making their dumplings perfect, Xina, the kids and I were more interested in making dough moustaches and drumming with our chopsticks. I think (or hope) the old ladies got a kick out of us though! Then, to top it off, our picture was put in the newspaper! Here is the link –

Asahi article I’m famous!

After we made the food, we walked around the town, went to an onsen and just had a nice, relaxing Sunday! I hope to do more stuff like this in the future! Here are some pictures of the day:

Enkai's and adventure!

I had an enkai the other night at the Principal of my Junior High School’s house. An enkai is basically a drinking party. Usually enkai’s are held at an izzakiah, which is a restaurant that does all you can eat/drink for a couple of hours. The principal (or kocho sensei) had an unbelievable house though, so it was fun to go there, and to top it off, he rented a karaoke machine for the evening! There was lots of food and drinking, and they even made me sing some karaoke (the chorus of a Japanese song, that repeats the same word over and over again.) Enkai’s have been known to get pretty crazy, with multiple parties continuing on after the first dinner party, but this one was pretty tame.

The next day my friend Naoko took me on one of her day trips! I never know where she is taking me, but it always turns out to be somewhere fun! A couple weeks ago she took me to a ‘Make your own soba’ place, where we made soba noodles from scratch and cooked them up for lunch! She also took me to some local farms and a park. But this time we went to Saga prefecture to the Tosu outlets! We went to the Gap and found some clothes in my size! That day I taught Naoko the phrase, “I’m like a kid in a candy store.”

Winter is a comin!

It’s getting cold! Japan has no central heat. None. Everyone asks me which is colder – Boston or Aso? Well Boston might be colder, but inside is at least comfortable! I’ve started going to the Onsen all the time and I layer up for school! I’m sure it’s going to get worse too, especially when it snows, but for now all I can do is go by some kerosene and wear A LOT of clothes!

Halloween - Japanese style

Happy Halloween! Well they don’t celebrate Halloween here, but of course the Americans have brought it over and the Kumamoto JETs are well known for having a great Halloween party! The weekend before Halloween, we had a Halloween themed surprise party for an ALT in my area. It was tons of fun and he literally had no clue. Then the next week at school I got to teach the students about Halloween, including teaching them the “Trick or Treat” chant. The actual Halloween weekend was quite busy. My eikaiwa had a Halloween karaoke potluck on Friday night (I was a cat), Saturday I helped out at a local children’s Halloween party for kids that have English tutors (I was a cowgirl), and Saturday night I went to the big ALT party dressed as the swine flu. Sunday was all about recovering and then it was back to school on Monday!

SWINE FLU!

Well the swine flu made it’s rounds out in Aso! My favorite teacher got it and a couple of days later our school was shut down! Of course, the teachers still had to go to school and hang out in our masks. But it was actually quite fun. I gave them all little Halloween goody bags I had made with some American candy from Costco, studied some more Japanese, and just chatted about the many differences in Japan and America. Here’s a lovely mask photo for you all…

Bunkasai and speech contest

My junior high school had the annual English speech contest and annual culture festival in these past couple of weeks! 2-4 students from each grade in every junior high school in Japan, practice an English passage from their textbook and present it in front of local judges. If they place in the local competition, they go to the prefectural level and then the national. Some schools take this very seriously, practicing months in advance. My school, well, not so much. We started a couple weeks before, played some basketball, worked on some English pronounciation, and just went for the ‘let’s have fun with English’ approach. And it was fun! We made up some over the top gestures when ordering fast food and asking ‘large or small?’ ‘for here or to go?’ The kids all had a great time, and since I knew they probably wouldn’t place, I made them American-style certificates - which I’m not gonna lie, the other students were jealous of ;)















The students also got to present their English speeches at the culture festival. The culture festival is an annual fall event done by every school in Japan. Students display artwork, class projects, perform dances, plays, and finish with each class competing in a singing compition. It was lots of fun to watch and really refreshing to see my students displaying their talents outside of the English classroom! The culture festival ended with me and the principle having an entire conversation in Japanese! I was so excited and he told me I must be studying, to which I replied – every day! Ah slowly but surely I’m able to communicate!

Country Gold!

I never would’ve imagined in a million years that Kumamoto, Japan loves country music, but guess what – it does! (The city is actually featured in Brad Paisley’s new music video, Welcome to the Future) In mid-October there is a HUGE country music festival with more Americana than I have ever seen ourside of NYC, the South, and the 4th of July. It was pretty amazing. From competitive square dancing teams from all over Japan to confederate flags for sale, it was quite the experience! Of course my friends and I decked ourselves out for the event, getting in on the line dancing and basically just acting like this is what we do everyday in America. It was tons of fun and I can’t wait for next years festival! Who would’ve guessed, my first country music festival ever was in Japan!

American visitor

After returning home, the ALT from 5 years ago came to visit with his Japanese wife and 1 year-old-baby! She was adorable! We all went to a local preschool together, and then went to my Junior High School to visit with old teachers! Even though all the students asked me if he was my husband (because clearly since he lives in America, brought his half Japanese daughter and Japanese wife to school, and I say I don’t have a boyfriend every day we are married…) it was a lot of fun to show him around and see him reconnect with some of the students that had him as a teacher back when they were elementary school students! He also had offered to bring me things I’m missing from the states, which was really nice. I didn’t want to send him on a wild chase for anything, but he did bring me some parmesan flavored goldfish (hint, hint)

Hiroshima!

Ok ok I know. I’ve been a horrible blogger! But hey – wouldn’t you rather me being out enjoying Japan rather than hunched over a computer? I thought so. So ok…let’s catch up.

First things first – I went to Hiroshima for a long weekend and had a really great time! There was a sake festival that weekend, but the group and I were more interested in seeing the Hiroshima sights, and thought that a festival solely dedicated to drinking might detract from what happened in the city.

Erin and I took a bus and met up with an Osaka friend when we got there. Then we wandered around trying to find our hostel, unpacked when we finally found it, and then went out for some of Hiroshima’s famous Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki has two styles – Osaka style and Hiroshima style. Hiroshima cooks noodles inside this pancake vegetable mixture - it's really delicious!

The next day the three of us went to the Hiroshima peace park, where we saw the A-bomb dome (building right under where the bomb exploded) the museum, childrens memorial (with the 1000 paper cranes if you’ve ever read that book…) and other really powerful sights. It was pretty interesting being there as an American, and I felt a little awkward at times knowing who dropped the bomb and all, but it was equally as important for me to see it. One thing that surprised me was the many paragraphs of text dedicated to encouraging the Japanese to take responsibility for their actions and involvement as well. While the peace park commemorates those lost in WWII, especially victims of the bomb, the park has a sense of optimism and hope for the future. One of my favorite parts was a wall that had hundreds of letters written by the Mayor of Hiroshima. For every test of a nuclear weapon, the mayor sends of letter urging them not to in hope of peace. Unfortunately, many of these letters were sent to US addresses….

After spending the day in the park, we went to Hiroshima castle and then made our way over to the second hostel we were staying at. This hostel was right on the coast because in the morning we were heading to the island of Miyajima, which is in the top three beautiful sights in Japan. (The Japanese are super into ranking things…everything here is like ‘the 4^th largest tree in the southern most region of the central island of Japan’ – and it’s kind of hilarious) The hostel was, well interesting, to say the least. It was the owners birthday that night so when we got there, so he was already really drunk when we got there. He checked us in and then escorted us over to his birthday party! One of the hostel workers had studied in Arkansas (where Erin is from) so she was RIDICULOUSLY excited to meet us. It was quite a night, but we needed to get some rest because we wanted to make it out to the Miyajima floating gate at low tide!

Well, we amazingly did make it to the island bright and early which meant we could walk out to the gate! After taking some pictures there, we toured the rest of the island, including taking a really long hike to the top of the mountain, riding on a steep ropeway, avoiding the aggressive deer (well, as well as we could – they even eat paper!) and of course sampling the famous cuisine (oysters, eel, and these maple leaf shaped pancake treats).

Then we went back to the first hostel we stayed in, dropped off our bags, and hit the town for some dinner, karaoke, etc.

The next day we woke up early to go see a beautiful garden in the city. We walked around and even made some new friends! This old lady wanted to take a photo with us and when I made room for her, she pointed to my other side because she wanted to sit next to Seamus! But then she gave us cream puffs so I couldn’t be that upset!

Afterwards, Erin and I said farewell to Seamus and ventured back to the ‘moto! All and all a great trip!

TYPHOONS and Costco!

It's typhoon season!!! Don't worry, I'm safe! But it's been pretty windy and raining A LOT for the past couple of days. My prefecture shouldn't be hit too hard, so I'm not too concerned. I'm taking normal precautions in case I were to lose power or what not, but don't fret mom! I'm OK!

This past week and a half has been pretty low key. I've been doing a lot of teaching and I stayed in Aso for the weekend. The students are doing community work this week, so I was able to make my English board for October.



















I've also heard from other ALTs that they've had success making English newsletters for their students. I decided to make a monthly paper titled, The Nicole Times (creative, I know!) Each issue has a quiz/word search/cross word etc. and the student from each grade that turns it in the fastest will receive a prize.

Late October is also the English speech contest. The strongest English speakers from each grade (junior high) memorize a passage and are judged on their pronunciation, intonation, speed, clarity etc. I've been working with these students during break time and its been nice to get to know some select students especially well. They are working so hard but there are just some sounds they really struggle with, most notably th's, r's and l's .

The highlight of my weekend was my Sunday trip to COSTCO! Never have I been so excited for shopping in bulk! The Costco is in Fukuoka which is the prefecture to the North of Kumamoto. It took about 1.5 hours to get there by car, but it was well worth the trip! I went with a fellow Aso ALT and we did some damage... The funniest thing about the trip was that most of the Japanese shoppers only bought a few things (which looked ridiculous in their massive carts.) I couldn't help but think, why come to Costco if you're only going to buy a bottle of wine and some laundry detergent? But my reaction to the Japanese shoppers was tame in comparison to the ones they were having in regards to my cart (filled to the brim...)



Everyone that walked by was staring - it was pretty hilarious. My friend is almost fluent in Japanese now (this is her 5th year) so she would translate for me while I witnessed jaw after jaw dropping to the floor.

We had some great finds at Costco, Amy's organic burritos, western cheese (the cheese here is processed and tastes horrible) Halloween candy, and my personal favorite - bread from the La Brea bakery in Los Angeles! I couldn't believe it when I saw it - but I can spot their brown and maroon packaging anywhere! We then drove back to the 'moto (as we are now calling Kumamoto) and I snuggled up to watch Lost in Translation. I hadn't seen it before, but since it is about being a foreigner in Japan, I had been told I needed to see it before I got too accustomed to living here.

So much about that movie is spot on - if you haven't seen it, I recommend it. Then come visit me and watch it again!

Today was an interesting day though. This morning I had a health test given to all employees of the City Hall (where the Board of Education is.) One of my teachers was there and took me under her wing guiding me through the different stations even though she doesn't speak English. Things started normally enough with the usual - eye test, hearing test, height, weight etc. but then came the blood test and they couldn't find a vein. They made me sit with a heating pad on my arm while they all beckoned each other over to see what the problem was.

After finally and successfully drawing blood, they had me lie down while they put sensors all over me. They also put these claw like things on my wrists and ankles to test who knows what. After I passed that stage I had to go to a van for what would be my first ultrasound. Yes - ultrasound. Not being pregnant, this was a little surprising as I had the warm goo rubbed all over my stomach, but hey, it's Japan. I'm sure something they found in there was helpful?

This evening I had my first shodo (calligraphy) class. With every stroke I made, my sensei said 背語彙！which means amazing. I tried hard not to laugh as I had literally just moved my brush across the paper, but maybe the foreigners she had taught before weren't too good. Nice to see my USC Fine Arts education is helping me out in some way!

And now I'm back and about to go to bed. I'm trying to get all rested up for my long weekend in Hiroshima (stay tuned for the post)! Wish me luck with the typhoon in the mean time!

Janken

This post is dedicated to the main form of decision making I have witnessed thus far in Japan - janken. For those of us who speak English, you might be more familiar with it's other name, Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Honestly, I witness this game at least 6 times a day. If there is an extra milk at school lunch, the kids janken for it. If two students tie in Bingo, they will janken to determine a winner. One JET I met in Osaka who is not well liked by his JTE's actually witnessed his JTE's jankening to see who would have to teach with him! The loser then congratulated the winner, and proceeded to go over the lesson plan with my friend! What's amazing though is that regardless of the result of the janken, everyone respects it. If you lose and some other kid gets that last milk, game over, you lost, that's it.

Sometimes we joke that if we were to walk into the Prime Minister's office during a major policy making meeting, we would probably witness an epic janken match - it carries that much weight!

The other night at Denory's, before the band came on we had a janken tournament. You would pay 100yen to play, and the final winner would take all of the money. Yes - this is what we do for fun at bars.

That's really all I have to say about Rock, Paper, Scissors, because, well, what else really is there more to say? I just had to share the power that this game has in Japan, and warn you that if you come visit, be prepared to play - A LOT.

















1 - Jankening at the sports festival
2 - Jess losing in the Denory's janken tournament

Reconnected!

And I'm back on the internet!

Friday while I was on the train heading to Osaka I received a phone call from someone that couldn't speak English (why they call me I have yet to find out...) the only English they could throw together was "tonight, go home." This of course made me a little nervous as I tried to quickly review all my work obligations in my head, but I couldn't come up with anything I needed to do. I told them to call my supervisor, who then called to tell me my modem had arrived and would be at my neighbors house when I got back from my trip! So no more long runs without internet and blogging!

Since I last posted two big things have happened - one being my weekend of sports festivals and the other being my trip to Osaka.

Sports Festivals:
Sports festival is pretty much awesome. It felt like I was back at camp, but in Japan...
I had three during the weekend of September 12-13 so I went to one on Saturday and 2 on Sunday - one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Basically, the school is divided up into two teams, red and white. They compete all day in running races, cheers, dances, acrobatics - you name it! and since I've found the Japanese to be some of the most detail-oriented and hardworking people I've ever met, it was quite a sight to be seen! The highlight for me was definitely when the youngest of the elementary school kids did the thriller dance. Sitting there watching it I couldn't help but think I love this country!

Some of the events called for community participation. Adults ran relay races that ranged from straight running to sitting on balloons and after popping them, running with paper bags on their heads. The superintendent was at 2 of the festivals I attended and he invited me to join in on a game where you hit a ball through some cones (a large version of golf). Luckily I made it on the first time! I had to represent being the only girl on my team! The mayor was at the other sports festival and he is just a character. In Japan they don't shake hands or wave (they bow) and they don't have the thumbs up hand gesture. Every time I see the mayor he runs up to me, intensely shakes my hand, and follows it up with a big thumbs up. I give him an equally enthusiastic thumbs up back, and secretly hope that he doesn't journey over to America where he might come to learn that thumbs up are really only given by movie critics and hitchhikers...






































Osaka
What a crazy place! It felt kind of like Japanese New York...
I went to Osaka for Silver week, which are three national holidays that take place in a row and this year were on a Monday, Tuesday and a Wednesday. I had the Friday before the weekend off from school as well, so Keiko, an ALT from Osaka that I met once randomly in San Francisco and then saw again at Tokyo orientation, invited Erin and I to come visit.

Erin and I met up in Kumamoto city where we tried to navigate the trains to catch our overnight ferry from Fukuoka (the largest city on our island.) We made it in time and were surprised to find that what appeared on the internet to be a sketchy looking boat, turned out to be quite nice! There was kareoke, massage chairs, public bath and a small arcade! We tried to get some sleep, although there was a snorer in our room, to gear up for the 5 day four night trip...














After docking, Keiko met us at the port with one of her JTEs. We then dropped off our stuff and went to her school. All the teachers met up and then we headed over to the Danjiri festival. At this festival, each town/city gets their own danjiri that members of the community pull, dance on, run with etc. in their respective community happi coats. It was tons of fun and was the largest festival I've been to thus far!

The celebration went well into the night and with the amount of alcohol consumed I was amazed that none of the Japanese men fell off of their danjiri!















































After the festival we went to a bar in Osaka. Here if you miss the last train (leaves about midnight or so) you have to wait for the first one which is at about 5am. Of the 4 nights, this happened 3 of them so the sleeping on the ferry turned out to be a great idea! After the club we caught about a 6:30am train, napped for about an hour and then started the next day!

There are some really awesome JETs living in Osaka and we all met up at the castle for some sightseeing. There were so many foreigners there, I didn't even feel like I was in Japan! Maybe it's just because I live in the countryside and I'm the only blonde...



















After walking around castle grounds, we went to the major shopping district in town where we got dinner and had a little evening purikura and kareoke session. We decided not to stay out all night though because we were going to Kyoto on Monday!















Kyoto was beautiful! I wish we'd gotten to see more but because it was silver week, it was insanely crowded. I'm going to try to make it over there again, preferably not during peak travel time, so I can get in everything! We went to the imperial palace and to the golden temple. Kyoto has shrines on almost every corner, so it was beautiful walking around and taking everything in!



















After we took the train back to Osaka and met up in triangle park, which felt a little like Tokyo drift. There were all these skateboarders and people driving really nice cars...an interesting place. After hanging out there for a couple of hours we went to a local bar that had darts, foosball and was just a little more relaxed. They kicked us out around 4:30am and with a half hour to kill before the first train, we did what any American would do - went to the 24 hour McDonalds. The 24 hour McD's is hilarious - it's more like a hostel than a restaurant!

After we took the 5am train back to Keiko's, caught a couple zzz's and met up with a woman that lived with Erin during a homestay in the States. She took us to a great place for lunch with her boyfriend and then we headed out to meet up with the rest of the Osaka crew for an afternoon at the aquarium. It was way too crowded in the aquarium but fun none the less. They had some really interesting fish I'd never seen before and we had a great time making up captions for the ridiculous warning pictures posted throughout the building.

I call this one 'please do not surf on stingrays or you might be eaten by a shark'


















The aquarium trip then turned into Taco Tuesday, where we all went to one JETs apartment to cook up some Mexican food. We all missed our last trains so we went to kareoke to complete allnighter #3.

The next day Erin and I said our farewells and took the shinkansen, or bullet train, back to Kumamoto. I slept through most of it, but it was pretty cool going 300+ mph by train! It looks so aerodynamic too!












When I got back to my house I unpacked and passed out circa 8pm. Luckily I had elementary school the next day which is so much fun or else I might not have made it through the day awake!

This weekend I kept it pretty low key. I went out to dinner with one of my JTE's and had friends come down to Aso on Saturday for Denory's night. Previously at school, I was handed a map with a time by an elementary school vice principle inviting me to play tennis, so I also got in 3 hours of tennis Saturday morning with what I think is my new tennis club? It's really difficult not being able to communicate! All in all though it was a really fun weekend - not too crazy which was exactly what I needed!

So now the new week begins! I'm working on planning my next couple of trips including an October long weekend to Hiroshima and a 3 week trip potentially to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and maybe Laos over winter break. Thailand is a definite though - the others depend on price. I'll keep you posted!

Well I must say, if you've read this far you truly deserve a medal! Since I'm not planning on losing my internet anytime soon, future entries won't be this long.

じゃね！

Life without internet

Greetings from my neighbors house! I've been without internet for almost a week, and it's not so fun considering that no one here talks on the phone and most communication is done via email. I can check my mail on my phone, but typing in English is time consuming and a little frustrating. But oh well - I'm on the computer now so I'll make the most of it!

Since I last wrote, I finished my first week of school! On Tuesday I went to one of my elementary schools and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. There are only 25 kids in the school so I did my self-introduction lesson for the entire school. Then I ate lunch with the 1st years - the youngest kids in the school. There are 4 of them in one class - 2 boys and 2 girls - and they are ADORABLE. They put on their little pink hats and robes and make an assembly line to put together the lunches. Getting served by a 5 year olds and then cleaning the school with them definitely felt a little like witnessing child labor, but it's part of the culture and they really are so cute!

The rest of the week was then spent back at my Junior High. I had a pretty full schedule, which was nice, and got to know some of the students better. There's a break in between lunch and cleaning the school, so I've found that this is a great time to learn some Japanese and talk to my students. On Thursday they told me that I have a great fashion sense, which makes me want to go buy a whole new wardrobe since Japanese fashion is crazy! I also got to go the 'Friends Room' which is the special education room. I drew some pictures with the kids, and I think they appreciated that I came to spend time with them. But who knows - they never tell you anything but compliments in Japan anyways...

I also got to play some more tennis with the kids. On Thursday I wore these hot pink running shorts which aren't short by American standards but definitely don't reach my knees, so between the color, the length, and the fact that I'm blonde and white, I got stared at a lot. I don't know if the shorts are inappropriate, but I also didn't bring any long shorts with me... I know they won't say anything here because culturally the Japanese just wouldn't, so I'll wear them. I told my JTE to tell me if I do something wrong, so I'll trust that she will and keep on playing.

Friday night we had a gun event (pronounced goon) which is basically like a county. It was a great chance to meet some of the JETs that live close to me and I finally got to meet the 4th ALT that lives in Aso. She's on her 5th and final year, so she really knows the ropes. She also really likes the outdoors so I'm excited to have someone active to spend some time with!

We all went bowling and then to an Irish pub in Ozu, the city next to Aso. It was a great night but I stayed out too late since I needed to be up early to head down to the south of the prefecture for the KumaJET beach party. (KumaJET is basically the Kumamoto JET association that plans social events, philanthropy events, etc. through out the year)

The beach was absolutely beautiful! I tried zorbing, which basically puts you inside this giant ball filled with some water and then rolls you down a hill, and also luging. Both were tons of fun! After the beach day, we set up camp at a local campsite and had a bbq and party. I got to meet a lot more of the JETs that had already been in Kumamoto for a while, including randomly, one girl that went to USC, graduated my year AND lived in my dorm freshman year. (She was 9th floor, I was 8th!) I also met another girl that went to Cornell and knows a lot of Newton people (surprise, surprise) so we had a lot of friends in common.





























A group of my friends didn't spend the night though, so I left with them and went back to one of their apartments to sleep. The next day we worked on planning our trip to Osaka to go visit a friend from orientation. Silver week is coming up, September 19-23, so we thought it would be a great time to try out the bullet train (goes over 300mph!) and check out Osaka and hopefully Kyoto as well. More details to come but hopefully all the planning with turn out alright. Japanese = difficult.

Overall everything is still going really well! It's hard to keep in touch without the internet, but it's getting me out of the house more! Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon, but for now, さよなら！ (Sayonara)

Back to school

The teaching has begun! Friday started with opening ceremonies, which basically involved me just trying to do what everyone around me was doing. I had to give my big speech in Japanese, which was nerve racking, but they all clapped, so maybe they understood?

After the ceremony, all the teachers had a lunch party where I gave a more casual self-introduction and along with my most fluent JTE, told everyone about myself. Kyoto-sensei (vice principle) sat next to me, trying to make conversation, but when that failed he called over the JTE to come sit with us so we could all talk. Everyone at the school is really nice - a few have said they would like to invite me to their homes, they just don't speak English. Maybe the invitation will still stand when my Japanese gets better...because I'm sure that will happen longggg before their English improves. So while the lunch was winding down, they decided to play the 'ask Nicole questions about herself' game, which in true Japanese style turned into do you have a boyfriend, what type of men do you like, and do you like Japanese men. oh Japan - nothing here seems out of bounds...

Then today was my first real day of teaching! I taught 5 classes at the junior high and gave my introductory lesson. Each class starts with a moment of silence, a morning greeting and bow, and then ends with a closing greeting and bow. For my portion of the class, I had previously blown up and laminated some photographs of Boston, USC, friends, family, etc. and using simple English, explained them. Afterward, I brought in some flyswatters and divided the classes into 2 teams. I would make a statement describing one of two photos I put on the board and then the first student to swat the appropriate picture would get a point for their team. Getting the students moving and having fun brought a whole new level of energy to the class and it was really fun! If there was time following that game, we played a True/False game where I said 5 things about myself and they had to choose either T or F - pretty straight forward you would imagine, but it required a good deal of explanation! My non verbal communication, especially my hand gestures, is getting pretty elaborate (next time you see me, ask for my impression of a fly swatter...) so I carried it over into this game. The kids especially loved my attempt at moonwalking when one of my statements was that Michael Jackson is my favorite singer.

I ate lunch with one of the second year classes, where we discussed very important topics such as Zac Effron and Miley Cyrus. Junior high really is perfect for me...

School lunch is an interesting experience. A couple of students head over to the lunch building to pick up food for everyone in their class. I get mine in the teachers room and then bring it over to a classroom of my choice - this is extremely nice because the children are expected to eat everything they are given, even if they don't like it (school lunches are really healthy, but about 800-1000cal) and this way I can do my own portions and leave out little surprises like the whole little dried out fish (eyes, tails, everything...) I was given today. The students serving the meals wear white jackets and hats that look like that of a chef - pretty classy. Once everyone has their food, we say a quick "Itadakimasu" and put our hands in a prayer position, only then can we all start eating together.

After lunch all the children clean the school. There is no custodial service, so the kids are responsible for tidying up. Some students are good at cleaning, but most are good at looking like they are cleaning when a teacher comes around. I mopped up a hallway with a couple of third year girls who basically sat there and just wanted to ask me the usual questions - do I have a boyfriend, what type of men I like etc.

After cleaning there were two more class periods, one of which I had free. The school day ends around 4/4:30 (Japan, I believe, has the longest school day in the world) and then it was time for club activities.

I had previously asked if I could join the tennis club, and was met with some surprised looks. Supposedly I'm the first ALT at the school that has asked to participate...So after school I borrowed my JTE's racket and hit with some of the girls on the team. They thought it was hilarious when I did the warm-ups, stretches, and sprints with them, but if I cared about making a fool out of myself in front of them, then I wouldn't have signed up for this job! They asked me if I would come back everyday - quite a lofty request - but I said I would come whenever I could. All and all it was a successful day and I'm excited for my day at elementary school tomorrow!

Just an FYI - my predecessor's contract on the internet runs out tomorrow, so it could be a little while until the switch over to my account happens and I have internet again. Hopefully it won't be too bad, but you never know. I'll still try to post at internet cafes and what not, but my pred said it took them over a month to hook her up. So until then...sionara

But wait, last but not least - happy birthday Rachel! Have a great 20th!

Exploring Aso

So the more time I'm spending in Aso the more I'm really loving it!

Wednesday I went exploring a little in the mountains. There is an area by the Aso Volcano Museum where can cows wander in these mountainous fields and people can go on pony rides! I did a little hiking by the water and thought a couple of times that some cows might be coming at me, but they just passed by. I'm sure they're used to people grazing that close to a touristy museum... A few people asked if I would be in some pictures with them, which is especially fun after hiking around in the Kyushu humidity, but it was one of those "I'm an ambassador for my country" kinds of moments, so I chatted with them in my poor Japanese and their broken English. It ended up being a fun conversation and they were quite funny, so all in all and great day!

At night I went to another festival with a girl that works at a Thai restaurant down the street from me. She and her boyfriend took me to the festival and fireworks, where I learned some Japanese slang that could be useful later on!

On Thursday, the superintendent of the Aso-city schools took me sightseeing with a co-worker. She is 28 (everyone here looks ridiculously younger than they are - it's pretty amazing!) and had been living in Aso for 20 years, but had never seen the volcano before! (It's one of the biggest attractions in the prefecture!) We both had a great time, and it's always nice to get to know a co-worker outside of the professional work setting.

I was blown away by how beautiful the volcano was. I had expected it to be red, but was shocked by the bright blue!




















After walking around the area and driving through the mountains, the superintendent bought us some ice cream - he really knew the way to my heart - and I went home to get ready for the evening's festivities.

That night was my welcome party, where basically everyone from the BOE came for dinner and drinking. It was a lot of fun, and everyone wanted me to try everything! At work, everyone is expected to put on a professional face, so these drinking parties are really a chance for everyone to blow off some steam and cut loose. While everyone has been extremely nice at the BOE, it was extra fun to see them more relaxed and in their element.

Afterwards, we went to the second night of the festival that I had gone to on Wednesday for dancing. They gave me a happi coat to wear, which shows which group or association of the local area you belong to. Then everyone dances around a fire to some music and drumming. There are drummers of all ages playing, even some adorable little kids, as well as dancers that show the motions to everyone else (since a lot of people are really drunk for this.)
















I was pretty much mesmerized by the whole experience. I absolutely loved being in the festival and doing the dances. I was sad when it all ended but knew that I had a fun weekend ahead!

Friday started with my formal Japanese introductions at my Junior High and my elementary schools. I only messed up at one, but they still loved it. The bar on foreigners is not really set too high here...

This weekend a group of JETs headed to Aso for an organized hiking and onsen trip. I invited some friends to stay with me if they wanted and six people loaded up their cars with sleeping gear and stayed at my house. They all arrived on Friday, and on Saturday we explored the volcano and some pretty rocky hiking trails. After we cleaned off at a really nice onsen:












then we headed to Denory's for Denory's night. They had different bands playing, and it was great to take my friends to the place I had been telling them about! On Sunday we slept in and headed to Uto for another festival! We met up with some other JETs and we all watched the fireworks together.

All in all a great weekend!

Monday I started going to my Junior high school instead of the BOE. It was nice to settle into my desk and start to get to know my JTEs (Japanese Teacher's of English - from now on I'll refer to them as JTEs and myself and other JETs as ALTs, or Assistant Language Teachers, so as not be too confusing)

I kind of feel like a celebrity at the school, it's very strange. All the kids stare and giggle when I walk by, the most outgoing of which will say hello and try to introduce themselves. I often overhear them asking other teachers at the school what my name is, how tall I am, etc. They don't have "L's" here, so Nicole is a difficult one. My name in Japanese is pronounced Nikoru (Nee-koh-roo) with extra emphasis on the ko and only a little on the ru. I'm really excited to start teaching! Friday is opening ceremonies (everything in Japan has a formal opening and closing) and then Monday is my first full day! I'm sure have have lots to report on after that!